Monthly Archives: September 2013

And once again, ye land-lubbers can be pretending to be going on the account, yellin’ to the wenches and sirs, “Avast! Prepare to be boarded!” as ye be taking liberties with them, blaming it all on the grog the whole time. Arrrr, ye almost be making Cinco de Mayo and Saint Patrick’s Day look respectable by comparison…

Aye, yes, it be me, the Jonah to the buzz of the day, jabbin’ on about what we can learn from pirates, asking again to have us think about pirates, not just be using them as cheap excuses to get drunk. If ye be meaning to get all ye sheets full into the wind, ye can get drunk to toasting your local postman, which may not be the most glamorous reasons to hoist a few, but it’s an excuse for a drink, right…?

Arrr, so I be drinkin’ with me small crew portside and not be doing no learnin’ to ye the way I be hoping to each year, unless ye picked up me tome, The Pirates of New York, which be free for the seizing today. And if ye missed getting yer hands on this booty because ye be looking for other booty elsewhere (and no, she’s not into ye at all, so stop staring at her, matey…), she be yours for a mere twelve bits.

The story of an unlikely group of swashbuckling Jews who ransacked the high seas!
They had boats with names like the Prophet Samuel, Queen Esther, and Shield of Abraham. They attacked and plundered the Spanish fleet while forming alliances with other European powers to ensure the safety of Jews living in hiding. Their tales are filled with attractive and repellant personalities, including a warrior rabbi, a shady arms dealer, and loathsome Spanish inquisitors. Learn not only about the Jews who practiced the Sweet Trade, but how many of them got away with it!

So aye, I be offering me knowledge about pirates close on the day after all. The notes I took in bringing Samuel de Cadiz to life, that be the basis of me talk that night.

And I promise you, it will not be entirely in pirate argot like this post; fun as that might be, I’ve got an audience to think of here…

So here be where the parley be, if ye be in the port of New York that night:

City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism

October 4th, 2013

7:30 PM

14th Street Y

344 East 14th Street (near corner of 1st Avenue)

New York, NY 10009

Arrr, if ye be willin’ to see me keel haul meself before an audience, and ye have a need to see something different for free on a Friday, then this be your course to chart, aye…

Unfortunately, the tone of a few of the announcements made by some of these bars suggested that the main remembrances over and above drinking involved dress-up, and suggested that if I wanted to get really involved I’d have to be attired thusly:

Yes, it’s gratuitous; it’s also for sale at the link when you click the pic…

Not having the, well, hull and masts for pulling this off, it looks like I can’t offer something educational that evening.

Though I will have another option, sort of the next best thing, which I will discuss that day, right here…

…but even if I never saw a dime directly from my work, just to get something more than two works for free out there; I’m especially thinking about it today, on another sad anniversary, another day that makes you ask if it had been you caught up at the Trade Center that moment, would what you did up to then have been enough, and was this enough…

…and if you can’t say yes, then it’s time to get to it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sorry, trying to fight maudlin with industrious; while life is always preferable to death, this may not be the best way to wage that struggle.

Lemme ask you all: Given the need to buck up, how do you do it? What do you do to snap out of it?

Mind you, the waters off Massachusetts can get pretty nasty as the fall creeps on in. Which means if the salvage crew wants to keep their skills up during the off season, they might have to practice looking for elements of Morgan’s fleet down in Panama.

This year, over and above doing all that listed above and having a few words on the blog, I’ll be making a special offer for everyone out there:

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve just published for Kindle the popular history The Pirates of New York. It looks at how pirates affected the history of New York City, and is a light short read that hopes to entertain as well as inform.

And for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, it’ll be downloadable for free!

So if you’ve been meaning to check it out but plead poverty for whatever reason (I don’t judge…), log in that day and download the book. Tell your friends about it, let them know there’s goodies being given away then.

Which makes what may happen there soon all the more tragically ironic, as we’d be going back to the Middle East so soon because of oil, although not for oil. If anything, we have less reason to go to war there to fight for new petroleum, and instead are looking at intervening thanks to our overusing this resource over the last few decades.

So no, I don’t think what I set up is all that far fetched; the consequences that thematically built the book did come and bite everyone’s asses pretty well. Depending on how Syria plays out, I might look back and think I didn’t go far enough…